Extreme heat fires up national demand surge

The water industry and water companies across the country appealed to customers to use water efficiently last week as all four UK nations recorded the hottest day of the year last weekend and the Met Office released its first ever extreme heat weather warning, with large parts of Wales, south-west England, parts of central and southern England, as well as Northern Ireland all covered by the warning.

Companies saw demand soar in the heat, with Scottish Water, for instance, reporting demand was up by 40% in some areas and that it had to produce more than 200Ml of extra water a day nationwide to maintain normal supplies.

The industry is expected usage to be higher than normal this summer as many people opt once again for staycations. Affinity Water has taken a new approach in working with five holiday parks in Clacton run by Park Holidays and Haven in Clacton to install water saving devices on showers, taps and toilets. It has also installed loggers to monitor the consumption changes, after discovering some holiday parks are using in excess of 250,000 litres of water a day.

Water UK shared a series of water saving hints and tips under the umbrella of its Water’s Worth Saving campaign, such as not to wash cars and to let lawns wait for rain.